News/events type: Award

Caitlin Hafferty, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Environmental Change Institute, has recently been awarded an Oxford Policy Engagement Network (OPEN) Fellowship to explore the role of risk and uncertainty in shaping high-integrity nature markets in the UK. The project – conducted in partnership with the Green Finance and Capability Team at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and the Green Finance Division at the Department for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) – aims to contribute evidence-led advice for the Nature Markets Framework, which sets out the government’s vision and approach for scaling up private investment in nature recovery and sustainable farming.

With the UK’s Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) aiming to meet net-zero and nature recovery targets, the government is seeking to close the “nature-finance” by unlocking private investment through voluntary carbon and nature markets. The Nature Markets Framework (NMF) and Green Finance Strategy (GFS) support this by promoting high-integrity markets that ensure environmental improvement, transparency, and avoidance of greenwashing. High-integrity strategies are also increasingly focused on social safeguards and delivering genuine community benefits. However, a key challenge remains understanding the barriers to businesses’ participation in these markets. Addressing this challenge is particularly important because recent studies indicate tensions between investor demands for certainty and the delivery of socio-economic benefits and community participation, which can introduce new risks for already risk-averse investors. This dynamic can also influence the type of ecological interventions prioritised, often favouring simpler, more market-friendly options like tree planting over more complex and integrated solutions.

The project, titled How does risk and uncertainty shape policy on high-integrity carbon and nature markets in the UK?, will run from January to July 2025. It is part of broader research on Risky Nature Recovery, funded by the LCNR. The aim is to generate novel insights into how risk and uncertainty influence investor perceptions of and participation in high-integrity carbon and nature markets, to provide evidence on how policy, guidance, and regulatory interventions can help. The social science-driven, transdisciplinary and collaborative research will be conducted by working closely with policy partners to co-design throughout the process, helping decision-makers access and make use of the evidence to shape policy in the UK and internationally. The Fellowship also aims to foster new collaborations between relevant projects at the LCNR and Agile Initiative, drawing on cutting edge analysis conducted between these projects in a mutually enriching way, to ultimately contribute to collective forward-thinking on integrated and socially inclusive approaches for financing and governing nature recovery.

For more information, or any questions, please contact Caitlin: Caitlin.hafferty@ouce.ox.ac.uk

We are delighted to announce that Dr Youngho (Young) Kim, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Environmental Economics, has been awarded the Wallace E. Oates Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award for 2024 by the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (AERE). This prestigious award recognises Dr Kim’s outstanding contribution to the field through his doctoral research at the University of Maryland, which offers innovative insights into leveraging nature-based solutions to tackle climate change and restore ecosystems.

Commenting on the achievement, Professor Alex Teytelboym and Associate Professor Elizabeth Baldwin commented: “We are absolutely delighted that Young won this prestigious award. His world-leading research on incentives for nature conservation and restoration is critical as the world grapples with a biodiversity crisis. It is a pleasure and a privilege for us to host Young at Oxford and to support his research agenda this academic year.”

Dr Kim’s dissertation, Essays on the Design and Evaluation of Payments for Ecosystem Services Programs, explores how well-designed economic incentives can promote sustainable land management practices. These payments for ecosystem services (PES) programmes reward farmers and landowners for activities such as wetland restoration and wildlife habitat conservation, which provide vital environmental benefits like improved water quality and carbon sequestration. His work combines advanced economic modelling, biophysical analyses, and real-world data to address three key questions:

Reducing Weather-Related Losses: Dr Kim’s research demonstrates how PES programmes, such as the U.S. Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, significantly mitigate the economic impacts of extreme weather, such as flooding, by restoring natural landscapes like wetlands.

Optimising Payments and Penalties: By proposing an innovative penalty structure for participants who exit PES programmes prematurely, Dr Kim offers solutions to improve the longevity and effectiveness of these initiatives.
Balancing Conservation and Market Incentives: His work highlights how competition between traditional conservation subsidies and emerging carbon and water trading markets can undermine overall environmental effectiveness, emphasising the need for harmonised policy approaches.

This remarkable research has critical implications for designing policies that maximise environmental and economic outcomes, making a strong case for the role of nature-based solutions in climate adaptation and mitigation strategies.

The Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery warmly congratulates Dr Kim on this exceptional achievement. His work exemplifies the innovative and impactful research conducted at Oxford, addressing some of the most pressing global challenges, and we are very much looking forward to working with him in 2025.

Further information about Dr Kim’s research can be found on his personal website.

“Shaping the design and implementation of England’s new biodiversity net gain policy”

Researchers whose work has had a significant, wide-reaching impact on the economy, society or environment were celebrated at NERC’s 2023 Impact Awards this week.

CONGRATULATIONS to Dr zu Ermgassen, who works in the Dept of Biology, and also on Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery projects, and his research has raised public awareness about England’s biodiversity net gain policy, a strategy to develop land and contribute to the recovery of nature.

The research has played a crucial role in shaping its design and implementation.

Evidence from his research has influenced policy changes, including £8 million in increased funding by the government to local authorities, helping to ensure the necessary measures are in place to improve environmental outcomes.

Sophus said: “It’s one of the greatest honours of my life that I’ve received this award, and it would never have happened if it wasn’t for the astonishingly kind and insightful mentorship of Professor Joe Bull, and Dame Professor EJ Milner-Gulland, who led the two NERC-funded projects this prize was awarded for. It’s an academic’s dream to work alongside and learn from my amazing colleagues in the Department of Biology’s Nature-positive hub and the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, and my colleagues at my brilliant PhD institution, DICE Kent. I really feel like we’re only just getting started with our work on the challenge of rewiring the economy to thrive within the constraints of the Earth system – so decades more work to come from us all”!

The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Impact Awards shine a spotlight on the UK environmental science at the heart of the responsible management of our planet.

Around 150 guests gathered for the ceremony underneath the skeleton of the blue whale, ‘Hope’, in the Natural History Museum’s iconic Hintze Hall.

The chair of this year’s judging and shortlisting panels was Kathryn Monk, Chair of the international Collaboration for Environmental Evidence and Honorary Professor at Swansea University. She said:

“The NERC Impact Awards has been a wonderful opportunity to encourage, recognise and reward scientists across the complete spectrum of environmental research. Scientists who have received awards have taken their research to the next level and the awards have celebrated the real reason many work in this area, and that is to improve our world”.

Watch a short clip about Sophus’ award here

Read more about the awards here

We’re proud to be working alongside Sophus zu Ermgassen, who has been nominated for a NERC Impact Award. His research has helped to balance development with nature recovery by informing England’s biodiversity net gain policy.

Sophus is a finalist in the NERC Impact Awards 2023, which shine a spotlight on the UK science at the heart of the responsible management of our planet. The awards celebrate NERC-funded scientists, as individuals or teams, whose work has had a big impact on the environment, economy or society.

Sophus’ research has raised public awareness about England’s biodiversity net gain policy, a strategy to develop land and contribute to the recovery of nature, and played a crucial role in shaping its design and implementation. His research has influenced policy changes, including £8 million in increased funding by the government to local authorities, helping to ensure the necessary measures are in place to improve environmental outcomes.

Watch this short clip where Sophus explains the importance of new governmental policy on Biodiversity Net Gain, and how his reserch has fed into policy currently being rolled out around the UK.

Find out more about the awards here

Good luck at the ceremony next week Sophus!

 

We’re delighted to share the news that our Community Engagement Officer, Kim Polgreen has received a High Sheriff’s Award for her outstanding contribution to inspiring young people across Oxfordshire to take an interest in,  and actively engage with sustainability and the environment.

Kim works with unfailing energy to share her expertise and enthusiasm about sustainability and the environment with young people. She volunteers her time to facilitate opportunities for young people across Oxfordshire, welcoming groups to Wytham Woods in her role as Youth Educator in Residence, fostering links between researchers and the community and bringing outdoor education into schools.

Her purposeful drive and determination inspires others, with projects such as her school tree-planting making a tangible impact not just on the young people directly involved but the wider community too. What makes Kim’s contribution so unique is the warmth, generosity of spirit and care she brings to every interaction: she inspires those around her to feel empowered to take the lead on issues that matter most to them by taking them seriously, listening thoughtfully and valuing every contribution. From her pastoral wellbeing trips for vulnerable young people to her Green Futures event to inspire students to consider sustainable careers, Kim’s vision and determination to bring community action from concept to realisation is second to none.

Kim inspires others to be their best, promoting new and innovative collaborations between schools and networks, such as her creation of a sustainable fashion project for North Oxford schools with Low Carbon Oxford. That she also finds time to volunteer her expertise to school leadership through a governor role in Oxfordshire state schools, as an advisor to the University and a volunteer with the UK Schools Sustainability Network is further testament to her indefatigable energy and drive.